by Eastern Regional Watch Ministries
Divination? Divination is condemned Scripture (Deut. 18:9-14; 2 Kings 17:17-18) and therefore a very negative term. But, divination in the evangelical Church? Has Plumbline crossed over the line or gone out of kilter on this topic? To put it in current parlance, this must be way “outside the box.” Nevertheless … I think you will come to agree that divination is definitely “inside the box,” alive and well in many of our churches.
It will be necessary to define divination very carefully. In this issue I have invited Pastor Bob DeWaay to do this “heavy lifting” and focus on a correct, biblical definition of divination. In this introductory article I will try to give some historical context to the current expressions now making the rounds in churches. It is all basically one phenomena with minor differences and mutations.
Divination generally refers to attempts to learn “hidden things” that cannot be known by normal means. Divination falls into two broad categories: mechanical and internal. Mechanical divination uses physical means to acquire hidden knowledge. Examples of this include such things as gazing into crystal balls, examining the livers or other internal organs of animals, interpreting the way arrows land after being thrown into the air, and reading Tarot cards. The internal category, sometimes called “soothsaying,” involves conjuring up a spiritual entity during a trance or an altered state of consciousness. Sometimes this spirit entity will appear as a person, no longer living, who returns and speaks words of wisdom. Sometimes the spirit who is “called up” speaks “through” a medium. In Acts 16:16 the slave girl had a “spirit of divination.” (It is interesting to note that, because there was often trickery involved, in the first century the word used for divination was also broadly used for the act of ventriloquism.)
Whatever the category or method used, divination is an attempt to ferret out hidden (occult) information. The incursion of divination into the Church is of the internal rather than the mechanical category and its focal points are the visualization techniques employed in “inner-healing” and imaginative prayer.Click here to read this entire article.
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